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The Ottawa Senators were hoping another home-stretch after the Christmas break would do wonders for their positioning in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately, Montreal had different ideas, routing Ottawa to a tune of 6-2 and subseqeuntly crushing some newfound optimism in the process.
What's so irritating - and perhaps downright nauseating - about this loss is that Ottawa looked like the home team in control early. They skated well in the Montreal zone, and even opened the scoring after Zack Smith's(!) tenth goal of the year.
After Smith's goal, it fell apart; seemingly out of thin air. Full credit to Montreal for skating hard after the early goal against, but Ottawa's collapse on the back-end was downright bizarre.
Montreal's trio of goals - courtesy of Lars Eller, Tomas Plekanec, and Mike Cammalleri - were all worked for, but with each lit lamp, the coaching staff of Ottawa was left with a serious head-scratching moment.
On Eller's goal(shorthanded, mind you), Erik Karlsson couldn't hold the line in the offensive zone, then failed to check Eller down ice. On Plekanec's goal, Ottawa couldn't thwart a cycle, jump into the shooting lane, or put a body on a body in front of the net. Jared Cowen may have been victimized by a poor bounce and/or redirect, but Tomas Plekanec - his man - did bury that puck clean.
The worst of all came from Mike Cammalleri, who innocently tucked in a rebound past Craig Anderson. Anyone who can dial up a replay of this goal and has a strong stomach should take careful notice of Bobby Butler's 'effort' to get back. Sure, the forwards were on the ice for a fairly long time, but what an inexcusable, Alex Kovalev-esque back-check by a guy who really doesn't have a long-leash at this point. Disgusting half-assed work from Butler, period.
At the end of one, Montreal had been out-shot 13-5 in the period, yet led by a pair of goals. Confusing? Yeah, a bit. But, there was no 'luck' factor in play, nor could Ottawa claim abuse from officiating on a poor call or two. Nope, this was simply a veteran team taking it to a rattled Ottawa club that simply collapsed.
To make matters worse, Montreal didn't just let up. No, they piled it on. Louis Leblanc scored on a scorcher (
please, make notice of the sarcasm), effectively ending Craig Anderson's laughable night. Alex Auld fared a bit better, but he couldn't thwart a P.K. Subban goal after yet another odd-man rush for Montreal.
The Senators would add a late goal from Jason Spezza via Milan Michalek, but it didn't mean much of anything in terms of the game, especially after Erik Cole's late score moved the margin back to four. Fact is, at 5:08 - the time of Lars Eller's shorty - this game had been decided.
Full marks to Montreal for playing a quality road game in the midst of a five-game losing streak. That's how you snap off detractors, and for the sake of their fan base, I hope they can keep the ball rolling.
Now, onto the Ottawa side. Boy, it's hard to get real reactionary with a team that's still in the learning process, but after that gong-show in Carolina, you'd think that this team would come out firing at home.
Erik Karlsson, who has been a mainstay for this team all season long, had his worst game of the season. It's not even debatable. Every time Montreal launched another rush, I cringed. Karlsson looked unusually out-of-sync offensively, too, making him essentially useless for all sixty minutes. His defensive game is definitely improving, but you wouldn't know it from tonight. Bury this video.
Bobby Butler - wow. There's truly no adjective available to slap next to your name. There's an incontrovertible truth about young players looking to earn ice time in this league - they have to work their asses off on every single shift. Not only is Butler decidedly useless in the offensive zone, but he's not playing with any kind of fire in the other direction - a death sentence for a player in the Paul MacLean era. Would not be surprised in the slightest to see him in the press box come Friday v. Calgary.
Craig Anderson followed up his best game of the season with an absolute stinker. As noted above, he - again - received pretty much no help in front against a fast Montreal team that can bury you when given the opportunity. With that said, it's hard not to expect this guy to make a key stop. He's not in there as some plug who's just trying to hold down the proverbial fort. No, Ottawa expects him to make a big save or two and steal games. The first three goals may have been slightly inexcusable for a variety of reasons, but Leblanc's tally gave me chest pain it was so bad.
The power-play was an unmitigated disaster. They've unexpectedly regressed over the past month or so from that wild start, and even though Montreal's penalty-kill is highly respected, you still expect some kind of cycle and fluidity. Every touch was a turnover waiting to happen, and Carey Price could've taken a nap in his crease on most shifts.
I probably could go on -
and on, and on - in this manner, but that really doesn't do any good. And, for what its worth, it is just one game in the standings. Still, my guess is that Paul MacLean and the coaching staff will lay into the entire team for their 'effort' on home ice.
Would love to be a fly on the wall for that meeting.
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